A Comparative Study of Iran-Turkey Public Diplomacy in Relation to the Syrian Crisis

The present article seeks to answer the fundamental question of what is the place of the tools of public diplomacy and soft power in formulating the strategy of Iran and Turkey towards Syria and its developments? The hypothesis to answer this question is that Iran has always maintained the tools of public diplomacy based on soft power in its strategy towards Syria; But from 1999 to 2011, Turkey maintained its soft diplomacy based on soft power towards Syria, but with the beginning of the Syrian developments, Syria's strategy gradually turned to a hard power strategy. Because Turkey, according to the doctrine of Ottomanism, sought to expand its strategic depth in the region, and the developments in Syria encouraged Turkey to achieve this goal by establishing the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria and expanding the Brotherhood axis. Therefore, Turkey faced the Assad government in the developments in Syria, and it was natural that the foreign policy strategy of this country would change from soft power to hard power. But Iran seeks to maintain its position in the region and Syria, so it has always expressed its support for the Syrian government and people, and public diplomacy has continued in Iran's strategy towards Syria. Therefore, the developments in Syria have also had a negative impact on Iran-Turkey relations. In this article, the descriptive-analytical method is used to collect data from library and documentary sources and in order to refine and systematize the research findings, the concept of public diplomacy is used.